pasta

My daddy makes me the best dinners. He got me from the creche last night when mamma was still in work and we went home and played for a while we did trains and jumping. Then he went to the kitchen to make dinner and one Handy Manny later it was ready. We had sausages and then out of the white beeping box we had potatoes, carrots & broccoli. I nommed it up. Sausages are new to me, mamma won’t eat them with me and dadda but sometimes she has special ones from the brrrfreezer and dadda and me eat them too.

Today my mammy chopped up 2 big oberjeans and put them in the dangeroushotoven. Mostly I like to see what she’s doing but it was taking her ages today and I didn’t bother. There were tomatoes and pasta too and cheese on top and it took so much time that I had a bath and everything. Then we all had dinner together. Doma had dinner and dadda had dinner and mamma had dinner but only mamma loved dinner. I don’t think dadda likes oberjeans very much and I said my tooth hurt and it was better when I had milk then my other tooth hurt and I drank more milk and it was better so I stopped eating dinner and had a yogurt and mamma said she thought i mean my tung hurt and she shouldn’t have put chilli in the dinner.

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We went on our holidays. Again! This time we kept it local (reasonably) and went to West Cork. We stayed in a gorgeous cosy holiday home which belongs to the family of a friend of mine. We did a mixture of eating in & cafes & restaurants. However the presiding memory of Dominic for the week, was the ever present plaintive cry of “sack, sack, sack” (snack).

slurrrrrrpp

Raisins, grapes, sawbrees (strawberries), organix cheese n herb puffs/carrot sticks and the new top favourite: Ella’s Kitchen Smoothie Fruit pouches. We did a big shop on the way to the house, and as I threw treat after treat into the trolley for grown ups (cake, wine, crisps, assorted fancy things that don’t feature in our weekly shop usually) I thought Dominic could do with a treat too. They were only 85c each so what the hell. We deployed these mostly when the parents wanted a treat too. A big creamy pint of Murphy’s shaped treat. Trouble was he sucked them back in about 20 seconds, and then harangued us for more and more and cue 2 desperate parents mere sips into their ale trying to get last drops squeezed out for de child.

He seesawed & swung for Ireland, met donkeys out on long walks, splashed around the beach in his new wetgear, played with the neigbours doggie, crossed the new bridge at Mizen Head, and fed the local duckies (mostly fed himself while watching us feed them). And with that much fresh sea air, his appetite wasn’t lacking.

howyis lads

We’re trying to get into snack control though! He’s starting in the morning with a few dry shreddies, that’s before he heads to creche and eats 2 weetabix there. Then this evening he had leftovers for his dinner, then a kiwi, then I made parental dinner after I came in from work, at which point he sat between us begging like a puppy from our forks. After that? “Snack?” I wouldn’t mind but his 12-18 month pants are still falling off his skinny bum!

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Don’t try and make meatballs this using quorn mince! I had a feeling this might happen, there’s no fat inherent in quorn mince to make the meatballs really stick together. They had the usual egg & breadcrumbs, and looked like perfect roundy specimens as they chilled in the fridge. But as soon as they hit the oil they kinda crumbled. Figured in for a penny in for a pound and just crushed them all up. So we had a good ol fashioned “mince”y tomatoey dinner. And it was really tasty, simmered in the tomato sauce.

I’m guessing we’re not the first people to try making quorn mince meatballs though, so after a quick google, I’ve found this recipe on the Baby Led Weaning site, which involves smaller meatballs and baking them in the sauce so definitely going to try again.

It’s a little hard to judge whether Dominic likes things or not at the moment. His current 2 top food related words nooooo & “moh?” (more). No, in this case, doesn’t always mean no. He’ll often say it then happily keep eating, or take what you’ve offered. More is usually a demand for more pasta, more grapes, or more yogurt. He can have them! “Wuh wuh” (water) is also fierce popular, but as much for its messing abilities as its thirst quenching goodness. He often has snacks like a breadstick or a few grapes while we’re preparing dinner post creche. It’s pretty hard when we get in the door from creche, throw the bags down and try to start dinner. There’s only ever one parent home at that point, and it’s tough to chop and season and sauté while Dom stands arms up towards either you or the food cupboards. So I might be filling him with snacks before dinner is ready.

We’re doing pretty well at meal planning at the moment. We’ll have 4 things decided that we’ll make during the week, but we’re not good at making things in advance. The furthest I’ll go is chopping some stuff before work in the morning. And in this house that’s ultra prepared…

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Today is Gud Friday. Mama didn’t think it was Gud Friday though because she went to work. My creche was closed and I spent the day with dada which made it a Very Gud Friday. But then I went to see mama at her work because me and dada were out and about. I did some running around in the kitchen at mama’s work until I made a new friend called Lily. Lily wanted to give me crinkly crisps but mama wouldn’t let her. Instead Lily fed me her whole yogurt and then gave me her apple too. Mama got her a creme egg to say thank you.

When mama came home from work I was shouting a lot. I was very hungry even though I had snacks after my nap. Mama made us all pasta with strong flavours. Thats what dada called it. I don’t think he really liked his. She left some with no sauce for me in case I didn’t like sauce but I really did. (goats cheese, black olive, garlic, sundried tomatoes – in place of anchovies – in this recipe – jill) I ate the pasta with the sauce and then something new aswell I haven’t had before which was very tasty. Oberjeen. Dada didn’t like his oberjeen so I ate some of it too. Mama said some people call it eggplant. I like eggys but this isn’t like eggys so that is a silly name.

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Hello all, I’m feeling much better. I’m a bit warm still sometimes but I like the medsin, meddzenpink stuff I get when I’m a bit warm. I point at it when I see it but then mama goes and puts it in the room where I have my bath so I can’t see it and then I don’t think to cry for it. I’m really hungry and dada and mama are delighted about that. Food over one isn’t for fun anymore you see, it’s a serious business. When I was in the hopspital I didn’t eat anything all day until the very end and then when they saw me eat toast they sent me home. Is eating toast bold like standing up hitting Iggle Piggle on the tv?

I ate lots of fud yesterday and none of it came back up in a big puddle out of my mouth. I have made big puddles on my cot and my bedroom floor, and my chair and mama and dada’s bed and bedroom floor and the sofa, and the kitchen and everywhere I could think of. So today I ate porridge for breakfast and I didn’t want much of my water. But after I had a lovely long nap I wanted my sippy cup back and I had rice cakes with almond butter and some raisins at lunchtime, and a fruit pot and sweetcorn rings for a snack and then mama thought to make something she hadn’t made in ages which was spinach balls with pasta and courgette sauce . It was yummy and dada loves it too. mama left me some more for lunch today and dada kept eating them I saw him there better be enough for me because I AM BACK.

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This week I have been mostly eating pasta with my dinners. Me and mama and dada and oma and opa are going on a plane to italy soon so mama says i’m in training. i don’t know where italy is maybe its near mammó’s house or maybe auntie lisa or emma’s houses? i’ll see when i get there.

Mama said already about my lentil lasagne. Yesterday dada made penne with peppers & onions & pesto & creme fraiche (I had to ask mama to spell that bit for me) and I nommed it all up. Then today we met Fiona & Rachel at lunchtime after me & mama’s bootcamp (it was windy i had my wintery hat on) and I ate more of that again and some broccoli. I touched the waitress on her bottom while she asked some men what they wanted for their lunch. Mama and the girls had a good laugh but told me that I couldn’t always get away with that. I don’t think the waitress minded, I might do it again.

This evening then mama made spaghetti bolognaise. Some women called Linda McCartney left her mince in the freezer and mama used it, I hope she doesn’t come looking for it. Dada thought I needed a spoon. No way. Sure what else are my handies for?